


just let me try

by sunlightdances (glowinghorizons)



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mechanics, Angst, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-03
Updated: 2018-12-03
Packaged: 2019-09-06 11:09:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16831444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glowinghorizons/pseuds/sunlightdances
Summary: Mechanic!AU. You get in a car accident not far from Dean’s shop and go to him for help.





	just let me try

Dean’s just getting ready to close the garage door when he sees her. The streetlights illuminate her hair, and he can tell she’s walking with a limp. His heart rate speeds up, and before he can stop himself, he’s jogging in her direction.

“What the hell happened?” He breathes when he gets a good look at her. She’s got a bruise on her temple, and there’s blood coming from somewhere near her left knee.

“Got rear-ended. Hit a tree. The driver took off.”

“Jesus Christ,” Dean mutters. “Your car?”

“Down the road. I– I didn’t know where else to go.” She says, meeting his eyes for the first time since she showed up.

“You didn’t feel like calling 911?” He grumbles, guiding her towards the front door.

“Can’t afford a hospital.” She says quietly, and his heart clenches again. “Can you just… can you just patch me up? Please, Dean.”

“You don’t have to ask,” he tells her, getting her inside, locking the door behind him. He takes her upstairs, up the narrow staircase that leads to his apartment, and is already making plans in his head to get her car towed and see if anything can be salvaged. “Make yourself comfortable,” he tells her. “I’m going to grab my first aid kit.”

He stops short in his bedroom on his way to the en suite, and tries not to think too hard about it when he grabs her one of his spare tshirts and a pair of sweatpants. He stops in the bathroom and grabs the small red bag with bandages, rubbing alcohol, and whatever else she might need before he heads back out to her.

She’s on the edge of the couch, her head in her hands, and he can see her shoulders shake as she cries.

“Hey, hey…” He soothes, abandoning the first aid kit and the clothes on his coffee table. He gets to his knees in front of her, brushing some of her hair gently out of her face and tucking it behind her ear. “It’s okay. You’re safe.”

“I don’t know why I’m crying,” she says, sniffling.

“You were in an accident. You’re allowed to cry.” He brushes a tear away with his thumb before reaching for the first aid kit. “Alright. Let’s see what we’re dealing with.”

A half hour later and she’s propped up on the couch dressed in Dean’s clothes, an ice pack on her left leg and a smattering of bandages on her legs and arms from where she was scratched with broken glass from the impact with the tree.

Dean’s got the TV on, but he’s really not able to tear his eyes away from her.

His eyes keep drifting back to the bruise on her temple, and he thinks about how much worse this could have been. How close he was to losing her.

“You’re staring.” She mutters, lifting her chin from where it was resting on her palm. “Do I look that bad?” She asks.

He snorts. “Just like you crashed your car into a tree.”

She frowns. “Dean–”

“I know.” He swallows. “Sorry. I just– this is all a little too close for comfort.” He keeps thinking about how it’s going to be when he goes to tow her car tomorrow. How it’s going to feel when he sees the crunched metal and broken glass, and how he’s going to invision her there, in the driver’s seat, waiting for the other driver to come help her, only for the asshole to drive off, leaving her to walk an entire mile with a dislocated knee and a concussion.

“You know you’re the only one I trust with that car,” she says, a tiny smile tilting her lips upward. “Probably the only one I trust with me, too.” The last part is quieter. Almost like she didn’t mean for him to hear.

But he _does_ hear her, and the words seep into his skin and curl around his heart, leaving him aching in a way he’s been trying to deny he’s felt for months.

There’s been hundreds of times over the last few months where he’s wanted to kiss her, but it’s never felt like it does now, like he’s going to go out of his mind if he can’t show her how he feels about her. If she wasn’t so banged up, he’d probably make a move right now, right here in his shitty apartment above his tiny little auto shop.

Still, circumstances. He waits.

.

.

Her car is basically totalled. It was in rough shape to begin with, but drivable, and he feels terrible that he can’t fix it. That’s what he _does_. He fixes things.

He drives her to the follow-up doctor’s appointment that he basically forces her to make, and stands propped up against the wall, arms crossed, as the doctor tells her that she’s going to have to do physical therapy and a litany of other things before he can clear her to go back to work.

He stays with her in the room after, holding her hand when she cries tears of frustration as she can’t pull herself to her feet on her own.

She’s tough and stubborn though, and refuses to let her injury keep her down for long. It reminds Dean of when they first met. She came into his shop demanding an oil change, and nothing else. _“None of that other bullshit you try to sell to women because you think they don’t know when they’re being taken,”_ she had said, and he thinks he’d been well and truly gone for her right then and there.

He takes her to her first therapy session, and that’s when he notices that she’s starting to push him away.

Her eyes meet his less often, and she shakes off his guiding hand at the small of her back like she’s been struck by lightning. He tries not to take it personally, but he’s done this himself enough times to recognize it for what it is.

He’s working on her car one day when she calls him for a ride, and as he’s coming to get her he knows he needs to bring it up. He has feelings for her, yes. But beyond that, she’s one of the only friends he’s got in this town and he’s not going to let her shove him away. He can’t.

She slides into the passenger side much easier than she has been, and he feels a moment of pride when he realizes she doesn’t have her knee brace on anymore.

“How’d it go?” He asks as he checks the mirrors and pulls out into traffic.

“Fine.”

His fingers tap out a rhythm on the steering wheel. “Do you need anything from the store? We can stop on our way–”

“I just want to get home and rest, Dean.”

He grits his teeth. “Sure. Fine.”

The rest of the drive is silent. When he pulls in the driveway, he doesn’t immediately unlock the doors and tension starts to fill the air between them. “I’m sorry if I’ve done something.” He says quietly. She doesn’t look at him. “I just want to help you. That’s all.”

“I didn’t ask for your help.”

His brow furrows. “You came to me after your accident.”

“I had nowhere else to go.”

“Don’t do this.”

She scoffs. “I’m not _doing_ anything. Dean, I don’t need you to fix me.”

Dean stares at her. “That’s not what I’m doing.”

“I’m broken right now, Dean. I am, and I don’t want to owe you–”

“You don’t owe me anything! I care about you, and I’m just–”

“This isn’t something you can analyze, order parts for, and fix, Dean!” She says heatedly. “Do you know that I have nightmares every single night? I relive the accident every night, and then every day I have to face the fact that I can’t do things I used to. I can’t work, I don’t have a car, and I can barely pay my rent. I can’t–” She takes a deep breath. “I can take care of myself to get back on my feet. I have to.”

Dean’s throat feels tight as he speaks. “If you need space… I’ll give that to you. I just– I only ever wanted to help you.” He meets her eyes. “I’ve never thought you were broken. Never.” He’s hurt, yes. But in the end, he recognizes the look in her eyes because he’s seen it in the mirror dozens of times. It’s what has driven others away, what’s made _him_ drive other people away. He sees himself when he looks at her, and that’s what hurts the most. He _understands_. He can’t even be angry at her. “Just… promise me you’ll call if you really need someone.”

She doesn’t speak, but she nods.

She’s out of the car and into her apartment before he can tell her he’s sorry, or ask her to change her mind.

.

.

It’s weeks before he sees her again. He busies himself with work, and drowns himself in liquor almost every night. He misses her more than he can stomach, so he pretends he doesn’t feel it. He pretends he doesn’t feel a damn thing.

He’s got the world’s worst hangover the next morning and has a full docket for the day. He’s elbow-deep in an engine when Benny comes to get him, telling him someone’s asking to see him.

“Can someone else handle it?” He asks, tongue poking through his teeth as he tries to focus on trying to find a leak. “I’m not really fit for customers.”

“You want to see this one.” Benny says, giving him a look before going back to his job.

Dean rolls his eyes, reaching for a rag as he glances out of the window from the shop into the waiting area. His heart stutters a little when he sees her. She’s fidgeting, biting her nails, and his feet move almost with a mind of their own.

“Hey.” He says, and she meets his gaze immediately, eyes wide and imploring.

“Dean. Hi.”

They just stare at each other for a second, and Dean would laugh if he wasn’t so damn nervous about what she’s here for. “Want a coffee?” He asks, voice gruff.

“That would be good.”

She follows him into his office, and he pulls out a chair for her before he sits on the edge of his desk, handing her a mug as they wait for the coffee to brew. “I…” He scratches the back of his neck. “You look good. Better, I mean.”

“I feel better.” She says, eyes on the coffee maker as it begins to percolate. “I know you’re busy, I’m sorry if–”

“Don’t be.” Dean chides gently. “I’ve been… I’ve wanted to come see you.” He admits. “I just didn’t know if you wanted me around.”

He’s surprised when he feels her hand cover his. “I’m so sorry, Dean.” She says, barely a whisper. “I didn’t mean what I said. I was emotional and frustrated, and–”

“You don’t have to apologize.”

“Yes I do.” She squeezes his hand. “You’ve been such a good friend to me, Dean. You helped me without me ever having to ask for it, and I just hated feeling like you were doing it out of pity–”

“That’s not why I helped you. It’s not why we’re friends.”

She sends him a look he can’t decipher. Almost pleading. “Then why… why do you care about me so much, Dean?”

Dean feels like he’s standing on the edge of a cliff. He shakes his head. “God, we’ve both been so stupid.” He leans forward, taking her mug from her free hand and putting it on his desk. He grabs her now-free hand and tugs her to her feet until she’s inches away from him, almost standing between his legs as he leans against his desk. “I care about you because I’m falling in love with you if I’m not all the way there already, sweetheart.” He hears her breath catch, but he keeps going. “I was scared out of my mind when you showed up here hurt, and I wanted to do anything I could to help you. Even if that meant giving you space so you could figure things out.”

“I thought–” She swallows hard, “I thought you just felt bad for me. Or that you felt like you owed me something because I came to you after the accident. I didn’t– Dean–”

“Hey, it’s okay.” He rubs his thumb over her knuckles. “Look– this doesn’t… you don’t have to say anything. I just want to know that we’re okay. That it won’t be three weeks before I see you again.”

“Don’t be an idiot.” She says, and he almost wants to laugh, because it’s so much like the old her that he’s missed so much. “Dean, I’m in love with you, too.”

He has to look away to try to keep the grin off his face, but it doesn’t work. “Let me buy you a better cup of coffee than this one. Maybe dinner, too.”

“Sounds like a date.”

He smirks. “Yeah, it does, doesn’t it?”

He follows her out the door after telling Benny he’s leaving early, and watches as she still limps slightly. He doesn’t feel as helpless anymore though, knowing he can be there for her and that she’s going to let him this time.


End file.
